'The Producers' at Hanover Theatre for five performances

Richard Lafleur readily acknowledges that being cast as one of the leads in the new national touring production of "The Producers" is the biggest break in his acting career to date.

"By far. Absolutely," said Lafleur, who plays Leo Bloom in the Mel Brooks Tony Award-winning musical that Brooks adapted from his 1968 movie comedy. Lafleur was speaking on the phone as the production was getting into high gear. After three weeks of rehearsing in New York City, tech week - going over the set, lights, props, etc. - was taking place in Elmira, New York, where the touring show was scheduled to open Oct. 20.

Next stop - The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts in Worcester, where the musical will have a five-performance run Oct. 23-25. "It's still gonna be pretty new when we get there," Lafleur said. The show will play more than 50 cities. "It's a huge show. This is whole new kettle of fish. I have to pinch myself. I'm surrounded by so many incredible people."

In Worcester he'll have some friends in the audience, even though he's never been here before. Lafleur is originally from Montreal, Canada, and now lives in New York City, where his roommate is actor Joe Boover, who grew up in Worcester. Boover's parents told Lafleur they would show him around while he's here.

"I know a little about Worcester. It's a small world," Lafleur said.

Small degrees of separation get even more interesting when you consider that Lafleur, after graduating from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York, went on to study at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, England. He received his MFA last year from the prestigious school founded by Laurence Olivier. Another Bristol Old Vic alumnus is Gene Wilder, who studied there before going on to play Leo Bloom in the 1968 movie "The Producers."

"Gene Wilder went there. I didn't realize that until I went there," Lafleur said. "Now my role is the one that made his career."

Unusual things often do happen in the world of theater, as attested by the brilliant and hilarious plot of "The Producers," the story of a larger-than-life but down-on-his-luck theater producer, Max Bialystock, and a very mild-mannered accountant, Leo Bloom, who think they've come up with a sure-fire Broadway scam. Namely, raise money for a show that is sure to fail, and when it flops on opening night, run off with all the investors' money. The can't-help-but-miss musical is "Springtime for Hitler,"' written by the mad Franz Liebkind. The cast is deliberately chosen to be terrible. What could possibly go right? …

In the movie the late Zero Mostel played Max opposite Wilder's Leo. The 2001 Broadway musical - written by Brooks and Thomas Meehan, with music and lyrics by Brooks arranged by Glen Kelly and Doug Besterman - starred Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick as Max and Leo respectively, and won a record 12 Tonys. A movie version of the musical with Lane and Broderick was released in 2005.

The new touring production features Susan Stroman's Tony Award-winning direction and choreography re-created on tour by director Nigel West and choreographer Lauren Kadel. David Johnson plays Bialystock, and the cast also includes Thomas Slater as Franz Liebkind. "The rehearsal process has been amazing. The director is one of the best I've ever worked with," Lafleur said.

He's never had any doubt that performing was what he should be doing since being 14 years old in high school. "I just knew it. It never crossed my mind what a difficult career this is."

But he's performed at regional theaters, in Shakespeare productions (including "The Comedy of Errors" at Shakespeare On The Shoreline Festival in Guildford, Conn.), and been a lead singer in shows with Carnival Cruise Lines and Royal Caribbean International.

While "The Producers" is both big American musical and American musical satire, Lafleur credits his Bristol, England, connection to getting cast in the show.

The Bristol Old Vic (whose alumni also include Jeremy Irons and Sir Patrick Stewart) provided "traditional classic English training … Coming back to the states, I wouldn't have gotten 'The Producers' had it not been for that experience," Lafleur said. "Just the way I approach things - investing in the text and adapting technique."

The Bristol Old Vic puts a premium on close textual study. Before his audition for "The Producers," Lafleur said "I spent two days locked in my room going over the film script and the musical script. Doing all the research and having that knowledge informs everything that you do. If you're well prepared you're not nervous. I feel so much more confident."

He's watched both the 1968 and 2005 movies as he prepares his performance of Leo for the tour. "I like building a character and doing research," he said. The foundation for this show comes with the recreation of Stroman's direction, then "layering the character."

Leo, despite getting involved with a scheme, is basically an innocent motivated by fleeing his horrible regular job and boss.

Wilder and Broderick's portrayals "are interesting because they are so different," Lafleur said, with Broderick's Leo "more timid."

"They are two reference points to find my own way to the middle ground a little bit. Leo (Bloom) is the Everyman in the show. In one way the audience views everything through Leo's eyes."

Contact Richard Duckett at Richard.Duckett@telegram.com. Follow him on twitter @TGRDuckett